I guess I'm not surprised to read that during a private event hosted recently by Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn in an affluent suburb of Nashville, Republican Governor Bill Lee sat quietly as Arnn said education is a “plague” and called public school teachers and the colleges that train them “dumb.”
The college president, Governor Lee’s education advisor and personal friend, disparaged Tennessee public education.
I guess this is what the Republican Party wants to hear to retain its base.
And Georgia now has to amend the motto of its universities offering degrees in primary and secondary education to read "Thank God for Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee"
Joe Warren
Ringgold
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Recently Dr.
Larry Arnn gave a private talk to a group in the Chattanooga area. Dr. Arn is quoted as saying, "Teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges..."
The verbal and quantitative scores on the Graduate Record Exam of education majors are lower than other graduate school majors.
George Mayo, Ph.D.
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George Mayo, PhD., in a letter to the Chattanooga claims that Dr Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College in Michigan and advisor to Governor Bill Lee made disparaging comments about teachers at an event in Hamilton County where he commented that “teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges..." . He also supported Dr Arnn’s comments by making a blanket statement that "The verbal and quantitative scores on the Graduate Record Exam of education majors are lower than other graduate school majors.”
Now, I would expect that a PhD would know how to attribute sources. Dr Mayo does not. He offers a blanket condemnation of teachers, just like Dr Arnn did. I would invite him to cite the source for his claim that the GRE scores of education majors “are lower than other graduate school majors.” It would also be helpful if Dr Mayo acknowledged that the comments were not made at a private event in the Chattanooga area, but they were made at an event held in Franklin, Tennessee, approximately 110 miles away.
Bottom line, Dr Arnn is a partisan hack seeking to suck off the public teat with Bill Lee offering millions of dollars to set up 50 charter schools across the state of Tennessee. Arnn's insults are gaining a backlash across the state with school boards denying the applications for Hillsdale charter schools, as they should. Of course, there is the commission that can override the local school board’s decision on charter schools, but Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), chair of the Tennessee House Education Administration Committee has declared that Hillsdale College’s hopes of charter schools in Tennessee are “shattered,” as they should be.
Our teachers work their tails off to educate our precious children. In the past decade or two, they have done so under increasing pressure from politicians with an agenda who don’t know the first thing about what teachers face and who would run screaming from the classroom after only a couple of hours of instruction time.
If Dr. Arnn and Dr. Mayo truly believe what they have stated, then let them put up or shut up. Our teachers deserve respect, not attacks.
Wayne Cook
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Larry Arnn certainly chose his words poorly. His recent comments about teachers are undiplomatic at best and offensive at worst. However, the most important question about what he said is, "Is it true?" Are those who major in education the least intelligent students on most college campuses? I'm sure all of us have opinions on the matter, but opinions are irrelevant in the face of data, and this question has been studied systematically.
For those who care about facts more than political squabbling, the data on this issue are summarized in this article:
https://www.sciencealert.com/your-college-major-can-be-a-pretty-good-indication-of-how-smart-you-are.
It looks like Mr. Arnn was just following the science. The real issue here is, what should we do about it?
Andy Walker